EBRD guarantee expands OTP Bank Moldova lending to small businesses

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EBRD expands OTP Bank lending

Highlights

EBRD provides a €25 million unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility to OTP Bank Moldova, covering part of a loan portfolio up to €50 million.
At least 20 percent of loans under the guarantee target green investments, supporting credit expansion for micro, small, and medium-sized Moldovan businesses, including women- and youth-led firms.
OTP Bank Moldova leverages EU first-loss risk cover to comply with tighter regulatory requirements and increase lending capacity amid persistent small enterprise funding constraints.

Guarantee structure and lending scope

As reported by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, citing an announcement from the institution, it is providing an unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility of €25 million to OTP Bank Moldova, partially covering the bank’s credit risk on a loan portfolio of up to €50 million. The structure is designed to help the lender release capital and increase credit flows to local private-sector businesses.

The new facility builds on a previous portfolio risk-sharing agreement signed by the two parties in November 2024. By sharing the risk on newly originated loans, the EBRD is supporting OTP Bank Moldova’s capacity to extend financing to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises across the country.

The package also includes partial first-loss risk cover from the European Union’s European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus Financial Inclusion programme. That backing is intended to help partner banks expand lending from their own balance sheets while managing risk and responding to tighter regulatory requirements.

Access to finance and market impact in Moldova

OTP Bank Moldova plans to use the guarantee to expand access to credit for smaller businesses, including women-led and youth-led enterprises and companies located outside the capital. At least 20 per cent of the covered loans are earmarked for green investments, adding a sustainability target to the broader financing push.

OTP Bank Moldova, part of Hungary’s OTP Bank Group, is one of the country’s four systemically important banks. It has worked with the EBRD since 1996 and has directed €90 million to local borrowers under EBRD financing programmes since 2013.

The EBRD remains Moldova’s largest institutional investor, with more than €3.3 billion invested across 201 projects to date. The new guarantee extends its role in supporting business financing in a market where smaller enterprises continue to face funding constraints.

In our earlier article on Pakistan’s push to expand lending to housing, agriculture and SMEs, we covered the government’s targets to lift farm credit and SME financing by June 2027 and to speed up housing-loan processing. We also noted plans to support banks through regulatory changes, risk-sharing arrangements, supply-chain finance and public-private partnerships aimed at widening access to formal credit in priority sectors.

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